Massapequa, its residents proudly proclaim, is a 'cop town'. Perched on Long Island's idyllic South Shore, it is just an hour's journey via train from Manhattan. The community is home to New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives, multi-generational police families, officers from Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and members of myriad other law enforcement agencies.
When body parts started to be discovered in 2010 on Gilgo Beach - not far from where local teens work as lifeguards and families gather in the summer - it became clear that a serial killer had been active on Long Island for years. The rumor mill went into overdrive. Was he local? Was he still hunting? And was he, after operating for so long without getting caught, perhaps even wearing a badge?
The 2023 arrest of architect Rex Heuermann put to rest those theories - and his admission in court to the murders of eight women has brought even further 'closure' to Long Island police, they said. It's a great relief, said Craig Garland, a retired NYPD detective, Massapequa resident and Little League baseball organizer. There were people out there trying to pin this on a cop and... it brings great closure to the law enforcement community at large that this wasn't a cop that was a serial killer.
Heuermann, a 62-year-old married father-of-two, was arrested in July 2023 in Manhattan, with authorities obtaining his DNA from a discarded piece of pizza outside his mid-town office. His daily commute from Massapequa Park to New York City took him right past the local police bar Johnny McGorey's, a popular pub directly next to a rail station where officers drank and discussed the hunt for the murderer as Heuermann made his way to and from his unkempt house just a few streets away.
As police breathed sighs of relief that he was an architect, the multi-generational police families living in the area faced immense shock when they learned that the individual responsible for such heinous acts had been living among them.
At Massapequa's St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Rev Gerard Gentleman noted how the community moved quickly from shock to generosity and empathy. People reached out, saying: 'What are we doing for [Heuermann's] family? Can we do anything?' he reflected. Yet, many are still left grappling with the harsh reality that while a sense of normalcy may gradually return to the community, there will remain a deep void for the victims' families, as emphasized by retired homicide chief John Azzata, who stated unequivocally, there's no closure for the victims.
